Media
#13 Ann Arbor Stories: A Brief History of Poop
Ann Arborites haven't always pooped in their pristine flush toilets and private privvys, no sir m'am. Things were gross and disgusting for a long time. Learn about the arrival of the earth closet, the sealing of the privvy vaults, and the story of the very first flush toilet in Ann Arbor. And hear the word poop, like 411 times.
Music by Tunde Olaniran.
Links (a bunch of them):
Strike The Iron While It's Hot!
The number of earth closets in Ann Arbor homes.
The second page has info about sewers and sewage in Ann Arbor.
The first column towards bottom, entitled Closets
How To Induce Feeble Health And Early Death
Fined For Working On A Shed In Fire Limits
Renewal Project Wins Favor
The President’s House
U-M President's Home, Built 113 Years Ago, Stands As Oldest Campus Structure
Kempf House dig: Privy to the past
More Earth Closets
Media
#12 Ann Arbor Stories: The Ballad of Shakey Jake
Legendary streetsman, bluesman and raconteur, Shakey Jake told so many tales to so many people that sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between fact and fiction. We do our best in this episode of Ann Arbor Stories.
Music by Ben Benjamin, made possible by Gholicense.
AADL Links
See articles and photos on Old News.
Shakey Jake's first blues performance in Ann Arbor on YouTube.
Media
Huzzah! Celebrating the Rise of Vintage Base Ball
The sport of vintage base ball has taken off in recent years, with Greenfield Village's historic base ball matches and new clubs sprouting up in communities throughout Michigan.
"Honest" Jon Van Hoek, captain of The Monitor Base Ball Club of Chelsea, presents a talk on the growing popularity of base ball played by the rules of the 1860s. He discusses the spirit and sportsmanship of the game, and the noticeable differences in equipment and rules of play from modern baseball.
Hear stories straight from the field, see great photos, learn unusual player nicknames, and find out how you can get involved as a spectator or as a player.
Media
#11 Ann Arbor Stories: The Great Meteorite Heist
It's a story 50,000 years old. Sort of. A 60-pound meteorite is stolen from the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. There are no signs of a break-in. No clues to follow. No video cameras to catch the robbers in the act. How did Detective Kevin McNulty of the University of Michigan Department of Public Safety crack the case?
Music by Mux Mool, made possible by Gholicense.
Media
#10 Ann Arbor Stories: Ann Arbor Invents the Cubicle
The cubicle. The three-walled cliche, surface to which so many Hang In There kitty cat posters are affixed, was invented in Ann Arbor. That’s right - the yoke around the neck of white collar workers everywhere was conceived and birthed in Ann Arbor. On State Street, no less. Here's the story of its invention and proliferation and how it came to be in Ann Arbor.
Music by Stepdad.
Further reading and photos from AADL's Oldnews
Birth of the Cube Farm from Ann Arbor Observer: Then & Now.
Media
#9 Ann Arbor Stories: It's Lovely to Die Together
(This episode is for mature audiences only)
The two girls were peculiar, even for Ann Arbor in 1971. They looked college aged, maybe they were hippies. Nothing outwardly weird, but something definitely strange. They stood a few feet apart, face to face on the corner of State and Liberty. Some said they were looking at the moon. Others said they just stared at each other. Stared for hours and hours that cold November night. This is the story of those two peculiar girls. And one tragic night in November in 1971.
Music by Diego and the Dissidents
Further reading and photos from AADL's Old News
Media
#8 Ann Arbor Stories: The Suicide Sub Comes to Ann Arbor
"See 38 and a half tons ... 81 feet of fanatical fiendishness. See one of the ships in which two of our enemies volunteer to accept death in order to blow up their objectives. See this Japanese suicide submarine and realize what a vicious, tricky, desperate enemy our boys are fighting in the pacific. Let’s hit them harder. Let’s depth-bomb them to the bottom of the sea - let’s show them what an aroused, all-out America can do." The Ann Arbor News
On that Saturday, July 17, 1943, this honest to goodness captured Japanese suicide sub would roll through the streets of Ann Arbor in one of the weirdest parades in city history.
Music by Hollow & Akimbo
Further reading and photos from AADL's Old News
Media
#7 Ann Arbor Stories: The Legendary Weed Contest of 1975
The Legendary Weed Contest of 1975 wasn’t just any contest. It was more than just a sweepstakes where the grand prize winner received one full-scale pound of Columbian smoking marijuana. It was a statement. A call to revolution. A brilliant marketing plan hatched during a smoke-filled discussion among the braintrust of the Ann Arbor Sun, looking for a way to increase the paper’s circulation.
Music by Chris Bathgate
Further reading and photos from AADL's Old News:
Contest winners announced
Legendary Weed Contest of 1975 ad
Prosecutor's Effort Fails to Halt Pot Giveaway
Prosecutor in court to halt pot contest
Media
#6 Ann Arbor Stories: Ghost in the Attic
For a town as old as Ann Arbor, it has surprisingly few ghost stories. But in the late 1950s, the congregation of the First Methodist Church in Ann Arbor was pretty convinced they had a spirit on their hands. Caretakers sometimes heard footsteps late at night, but never spotted anyone in the church. Until the early morning hours of August 30, 1959, when they made a chilling discovery.
Music by People Get Ready
Further reading from AADL's Old News:
Initial Story
Bill of Health
Lim Gets Aid
Going Back to School
Graduating Saturday
Hit by Car
10-year retrospective
Retrospective after Cheng's Death
Media
#5 Ann Arbor Stories: Ann Arbor's Oldest Gay Bar
It started on April 30, 1949, when Cupid Bar rebranded itself as The Flame Bar, turning a popular downtown student watering hole into a slightly more popular downtown student watering hole. Almost 50 years later, The Flame would close, shuttering an Ann Arbor institution. It wasn’t Ann Arbor’s first gay bar, and certainly not its last, but The Flame played a major role in the lives of many among Ann Arbor’s LGBT community - for good and ill.
Music by Lightning Love
Further reading from AADL's Old News:
The Flame bar review
Death of Harvey Blanchard
The Flame Bought
The Flame Reopens on Liberty